Aircraft display systems are capable of providing an observer (e.g., a pilot) with a considerable amount of information relating to the aircraft's position, flight plan, and surrounding environment (e.g., nearby geographical features, such as airports and mountains). An aircraft display system typically includes at least one monitor, which may be, for example, a head down display (HDD) screen. A processor utilizes information received from a variety of data sources to generate multiple displays on the monitor. These displays typically include a two-dimensional, horizontal situational awareness, moving map display, a three-dimensional perspective display, and a vertical situation display. The moving map display may include a top-down view of the aircraft, the flight plan, and the surrounding environment, while the perspective display represents the cockpit field-of-view. Various symbols are utilized to denote navigational cues (e.g., waypoint symbols, line segments interconnecting the waypoint symbols, range rings) and nearby environmental features (e.g., terrain, weather conditions, political boundaries, etc.). The perspective display is a forward-looking view, which may be somewhat similar to the view from the cockpit on a clear day. By comparison, the vertical situation display presents a clear graphical profile of the aircraft's vertical flight path that enhances the flight crews' vertical situational awareness by depicting the vertical situation of the aircraft throughout all phases of flights. It provides immediate validation and full time monitoring of the aircraft's flight path.
The moving map display, the perspective display, and vertical situation display each provide a pilot (or other observer) with important navigational information. For example, the moving map display permits a pilot to easily determine the aircraft's location with reference to geographical landmarks, including significant geographical features (e.g. ridges, mountain ranges, valleys, etc.) and man-made structures such as airports. The perspective display provides information regarding the aircraft's orientation (e.g. altitude, attitude, pitch, roll, etc.) and aspects of nearby geographical features in an intuitive manner. The moving map display and the vertical situation display may be produced on one or more monitors. For example, the moving map display and vertical situation display may be produced simultaneously on a single screen in a split-screen or picture-in-picture format. However, even when the displays are produced simultaneously on a single monitor, an observer may have difficulty correlating (i.e., associating) the information provided by the moving map display and with that provided by the vertical situation display. The observer may be unable to correlate the moving map display with the vertical situation display because conventional vertical situation display systems do not identify, on the vertical situation display, the cockpit field-of-view. Thus, the pilot's vertical situational awareness does not include visual cues regarding objects falling within the cockpit field-of-view and that outside the cockpit field-of-view on the vertical situation display.
Considering the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide an aircraft display system and method for indicating one or more parameters of the cockpit field-of-view on a vertical situation display in an intuitive and readily-comprehensible manner. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.